The ability to access high speed and high performance data networks is becoming increasingly important to data clients. Wireless network access is needed in many areas where wired infrastructure is non-existent, outdated, or impractical. In some environments, fixed wireless broadband networks can perform this function. However, the effectiveness of fixed wireless broadband technology is limited due to a combination of technological constraints and high deployment costs. For example, each conventional Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology access point must be connected directly to a wired backbone infrastructure.
To address the problem of access point tethering, mesh networks have been studied as an alternative. However, the effectiveness of wireless mesh networking is severely limited. In its most basic form, the mesh network is limited by its network capacity due to the requirement that nodes forward each others' packets. The mesh network is also limited by the fact that the sending and receiving of information from one mesh point to another often can cause collisions of network traffic. These collisions are sometimes minimized by the use of delays in network data, but these delays create inefficiencies within the network.
In a mesh network this inefficiency is magnified by the number of mesh nodes and access points. If there are multiple nodes within range of each other and one node signals that a delay is required by all other nodes, the one node may literally “clog” the entire mesh network. A system and method are needed to make the transfer of data within a mesh network more efficient.